THE WAMPANOAGS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY An Ethnohistorical Study

by Catherine Marten

And also those which should escape or overcome these difficulties, should yett be in continuall danger of the salvage people; who are cruell, barbarous, and most trecherous, being most furious in their rage, and merciles wher they overcome; not being contente only to kill, and take away life, but delight to tormente men in the most bloodie manner that may be; fleaing some alive with the shells of fishes, cutting of the members and joynts of others by peesmeale; and broiling on the coles, eate the collops of their flesh in their sight whilst they live, with other cruelties horrible to be related.

One of many fearsome prospects awaiting Europeans who would settle upon the American continent was thus described by William Bradford—Indians. In faraway Europe this simplistic view of the cruel and hostile primitives that inhabited the New World seemed adequate. But Bradford and his friends—known to history as the Pilgrims, who settled at Plymouth Massachusetts in 1620—were destined to see one group of North American Indians in a different way. Who were the Indians that greeted the Pilgrims and what can be told of their culture?

The Indians that inhabited New England are often collectively designated as Algonquians. This name actually signifies a group of tribes whose languages are related and are therefore classified together as members of the Algonquian language family. Speakers of Algonquian languages are not restricted to New England, however; rather they are spread widely over the North American continent. To the west on the Great Plains such tribes as the Blackfoot and the Arapaho, to the north the Naskapi, Abnaki, and Micmac, and to the south along the Atlantic Coast the Powhattan and the Chickahominy are a few examples of members of this large linguistic family. Besides noting that the languages spoken by these groups are related to one another, we can also speak of some broad similarities in culture shared by speakers of Algonquian languages. However, by the time of European contact both languages and cultures had diversified enough that Algonquian speakers from widely separated areas would not have understood one another’s speech and customs.

The tribe of Algonquians with which this monograph is chiefly concerned is the Wampanoags, which inhabited the immediate area around New Plimoth and from whose ranks came such familiar figures as Squanto, Massasoit, Hobomock, and Metacomet (King Philip). This tribe was also sometimes called the Pokanokets, after Pokanoket, Rhode Island, where the Sachems kept their principal headquarters.[1] Because they were closely related linguistically and culturally, however, one can with justification include information pertaining to the immediate neighbors of the Wampanoags—the Nausets, the Massachusetts, and the Narragansetts.[2] The lumping of these groups for the purpose of more completely filling out a cultural description of the Wampanoags is further legitimatized by the fact that since the devastation caused by a plague in 1616 or 1617 the members of these tribes had intermixed to some extent anyhow. The Indian village of Patuxet had formerly been located on the site where the Pilgrims were to establish New Plimoth; it had been wiped out by a plague. The sole survivor from Patuxet was Squanto, who had joined the band of a sachem called Massasoit.

Political relationships among the Indian groups of southeastern New England were variable depending upon the leadership abilities and popularity of their several sachems at various times. Massasoit and his immediate successors seem to have been quite powerful rulers and to have held the several sub-tribes of Wampanoags into a cohesive body.[3] At various times the Wampanoags ruled the Nauset of Cape Cod. They were frequently allied with the Massachusetts and were frequently at war with the Narragansetts. At the time when the Pilgrims arrived both the Wampanoags and the Massachusetts were considerably weakened in numbers by the plague of a few years earlier, which had left the Narragansetts relatively unscathed. The Wampanoags seem to have recognized in the new arrivals a potential ally, hence the Pilgrims were welcomed, albeit cautiously.[4]

The pages that follow attempt to describe as fully as possible the culture of the Wampanoags as it would have been during the lifetime of Plymouth Colony—1620 to about 1690. A few words are in order in regard to sources of information. The normal procedure for gaining ethnographic information is for a trained observer—usually an anthropologist—to live among the people he wants to study, interviewing informants and observing with the aid of notebook, tape recorder, and camera the activities and habits of the groups under study. This sort of a systematic investigation, however, is an invention of modern anthropology and is a phenomenon dating only to the last hundred years or so. Long before that time, contact with the technology, ideology, and diseases of Europeans had so altered the culture and diminished the numbers of most of the Eastern seaboard tribes, including the Wampanoags, that such a study would have been impossible. To describe the culture of the Wampanoags, therefore, it is necessary to turn to the historical record—both written and archaeological—for the only surviving information on these people.

The best sources for information on Wampanoag culture are the journals and letters of travelers and settlers of the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the Pilgrims, Edward Winslow proved to be an exceptional ethnographer, having recorded a number of insightful observations on Indian culture. John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay sent a collection of Indian artifacts back to England, some of which are still preserved in the British Museum. Of lesser value to the present purpose are writings of the latter half of the 17th century by missionaries who were trying to teach Christianity to the Indians. Their interests were in the progress of the civilized customs of a godly existence, and their writings do not focus upon aboriginal behavior. Information about artifacts and structures, often incompletely described by earlier chroniclers, can be added to by a study of the archaeological remains of Indian activity.

There will be omissions from the cultural description—questions never to be answered. But it is hoped that the bringing together in ethnographic format of what information is extant will give some insight into and further the understanding of Wampanoag culture as it was at approximately the time the Pilgrims encountered it.

DEMOGRAPHY

Estimates of population for the southern New England area are variable. The most widely quoted figure is that arrived at by Mooney—25,000 for the entire New England area, prior to the 1616-17 plague.[5] Other writers place the number at around 20,000 for southern New England alone.[6] In all likelihood, the lower number is the more nearly correct. Population estimates made by visitors to the New England area in the 16th and 17th centuries were based in the main upon what could be observed in the course of a coastwide voyage. And while Indian population appeared dense, the actual situation was one of a considerably concentrated population along the immediate coast, where rich marine resources were available, and a very sparse, often seasonal, occupation of vast tracts further inland.[7]

By the time the Pilgrims arrived, the population of eastern Massachusetts had declined greatly, as a result of the epidemic which we have mentioned before. No one really knows what the disease was that took such great numbers of Indians. The Massachusetts were virtually destroyed—first by the plague and then by wars with the Abnaki during the early decades of the seventeenth century. Population declined from perhaps three thousand to a mere five hundred between the years 1615 and 1630.[8] The Wampanoags had suffered less, but the effects of the plague were still felt heavily by them. Prior to the plague their numbers are estimated to have been two to three thousand, but death depopulated large tracts of land.[9] Altham writes that the nearest Indian town to Plymouth was fourteen miles away.[10] Gookin called them, “a potent nation in former times....”[11] In 1620 they numbered perhaps something over one thousand.[12] The Narragansetts, however, were untouched by the plague; they are said to have numbered some four thousand.[13]

The general result of the settlement of Europeans in New England was to further the trend of Indian depopulation. Whereas the Europeans might hope to have developed or inherited a degree of immunity to the diseases which they carried, such infections proved fatal to the Indians almost without exception. In 1632-33 the Narragansetts suffered a smallpox epidemic which killed some seven hundred, and at the same time it destroyed what remained of the Massachusetts tribe.[14] The well-meaning attempts of missionaries to Christianize the Indians by civilizing them and putting them into European clothes and houses also brought changes to the detriment of their general health. The “civilized” custom of washing, for example, removed the coating of animal fat that the Indian customarily wore to protect himself from cold and insects and exposed his body to previously unknown physiological shocks. Wars of the colonial period also took their toll of the Indian population.

As far as can be told from available information, the density of population in New England just prior to European colonization was .22 Indians per square mile.[15]

HISTORY AND CULTURE CHANGE

The few remnants of Wampanoag oral tradition are vague on the point of tribal history and origins. Most often mentioned is the idea that they came from somewhere to the south and west of their present home. Indeed, this may, according to the thinking of anthropologists, be the direction from which they received the corn that they were cultivating in at least the 16th century. However, the question of a true tribal history must, as is so often the case with pre-literate peoples, remain unanswered.

Early explorers and settlers had their own ideas as to the origins of the Indians they found in the New World. A popular belief was that these were descendants of one of the Biblical “lost tribes of Israel”. Some scholars went to great lengths to show that this was so by comparing the languages and religious concepts of the two groups. Along with this idea went a belief that the skin of the Indians was actually light, but that it was dyed brown during infancy.[16] Whatever may have been the course of their pre-contact history, the arrival of the white man was certainly a significant event for the culture of the Indians of southeastern New England.

Changes were being introduced into Indian culture long before the arrival of the first permanent European settlers. Fishing and whaling industries brought large numbers of ships (nearly four hundred in 1578) to the vicinity of Newfoundland and Cape Breton; incidental trade in furs between the Indians and these vessels covered a six-hundred mile range that undoubtedly included New England.[17] Indian graves which date from this period contain European trade items—the first evidence of the changes being introduced into native culture.[18] The Indians seem especially to have appreciated the value of the metal tools which the Europeans brought.[19] Their own use of metal had been limited to the making of ornaments out of native copper. For heavy work, such as felling trees and dressing game, stone tools were used.

The increasing substitution of metal tools for stone ones brought about changes in Indian technology that continued through the seventeenth century. The situation for New England Indians in general is summarized by Willoughby:

After and during the first two or three decades of the seventeenth century the Indians received from European traders, especially from the French and Dutch, cloth, kettles, hatchets, and many other objects, and the graves of that period have yielded numerous articles of this nature. The native industries of the people rapidly declined. It was principally among the women that the finer arts survived for a time, such as the better class of bag and basket making, porcupine and moose-hair embroidery, etc., although the men continued for a period the production of their excellent wooden bowls and drinking cups.[20]

Technological change was not, however, only a matter of the loss of skill at aboriginal crafts. The Indians were quick to learn useful new techniques from the English settlers. They learned the art of pewter casting, and thus produced pipes and buttons.[21] A further use for their new-found knowledge of metallurgy was noted by Governor Bradford:

They have also their moulds to make shotte, of all sorts, as muskett bulletts, pistoll bullets, swan and gose shote, and of smaler sorts; yea, some have seen them have their scruplates to make scrupins themselves, when they wante them, with sundery other implements, wher with they are ordinarily better fited and furnished then the English them selves.[22]

The history of contact between primitive peoples and Europeans has tended to be similar throughout the world, in that the first to contact and deal with the natives were usually entrepreneurs looking for new profits, followed by missionaries looking to save souls. The Wampanoags likewise experienced this phenomenon. While it was the intention of those who went there to settle to bring Christianity to the Indians, preparations for such a monumental task were not very well laid. English colonists had their hands full for a number of years just getting a living. They had made no provisions for the maintenance of missionaries to the Indians, and English congregations were not eager to spare their own ministers for the task. Thus, it was not until the middle of the seventeenth century at least before systematic attempts to change the Indians’ belief system were begun.

Notable among those who took up the mission to the Indians of southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island were Roger Williams, John Elliot, and the Mayhews, father and son. Quite a number of converts were made.[23] Converted Indians were encouraged to dwell together in what came to be dubbed “praying towns”. Such Indians were required to adopt European culture wholeheartedly in terms of dress, housing, habits, etc., and they were required to learn to read as part of their conversion so that they could study the scriptures. The majority of Indians seem to have refused conversion; however, the change on the part of some of them can hardly but have had influence upon the rest.

Another introduction from European culture was alcohol, previously unknown to the Wampanoags and their neighbors. This became a popular item of trade, and some Indians undertook the cultivation of apples for the purpose of making cider.[24]

FOOD QUEST

Annual Cycle: The environment of coastal southern New England was rich in a variety of wild food resources. Because these resources were available seasonally in several differing localities, the Wampanoags, who lived by a combination of hunting, fishing, collecting, and horticulture, moved several times during the year.

Beginning in about April, large numbers of Indians, probably the populations of several localized winter camping groups, would gather at the falls of certain rivers for the upstream runs of fish such as herring.[25] Migratory birds were also taken at this time.[26] The period of taking fresh water and androgynous fish along streams and in lakes continued until planting season, when the Wampanoags moved to the coast.

Summer was a time of gardening; it was also the time when the vast array of marine resources was exploited. In addition, summer brought an abundance of shore birds. Planting involved two crops, with people sometimes moving from a house by an early field to one by a later field in the middle of the summer.

Deer were hunted in the fall; men moved away to the forest to catch the migrating animals. Sometimes women and children would be included in the hunting expedition, if the distance to be traveled was not too far from their summer home. But some people stayed in their summer residences through the hunting season, probably to harvest the last crop. Hunting sometimes lasted until the snow was too deep to move in.

After hunting season the fall and summer encampments were abandoned, and people moved inland, joining with other summer village groups to take up winter quarters in what Williams describes as “thick warme vallies”. There was greater protection from the weather away from the shore, and the warm weather food resources were gone—even the fish moved offshore into deeper waters. From December or January until April, Indians occupied these winter camps and lived on food they had stored during summer and fall and on what could be caught through the ice or trapped during the winter. With the return of spring, they would once again congregate at their fishing places.[27]

Collecting: A number of wild plants were utilized by the Wampanoags for food. These included wild peas, strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, currants, chestnuts, acorns, walnuts, ground nuts, and the Jerusalem artichoke.[28] Doubtless other nuts, roots, and berries not specifically named by the early observers were also collected.[29] The ground nut (Apios tuberosa) was one of the most important of the wild roots that the Indians used for food.[30] It also helped the Pilgrims keep away starvation during the winter of 1623.

A part of the inventory of collected foods consisted of shellfish. Clams were dug by the women at low tide. Also noted specifically were: horseshoe crab, lobster, oyster, crab, soft-shelled clam, and mussel.[31] The following passage tells of the troublesome quest for lobsters:

This is an every dayes walke, be the weather cold or hot, the waters rough or calme, they must dive sometimes over head and eares for a Lobster, which often shakes them by their hands with a churlish nippe, and bids them adiew. The tide being spent, they trudge home two or three miles, with a hundred weight of Lobsters at their backs, and if none, a hundred scoulds meete them at home, and a hungry belly for two dayes after.[32]

Fowling: The various types of fowl that were taken included turkeys, ducks, geese, pigeons, cormorants, and cranes.[32] This is only a partial list (again the kinds cited specifically by contemporary sources) of the kinds of birds that were actually hunted; there was an abundance of both shore and land birds to be taken at various seasons.[33] Turkeys seem to have been particularly numerous.[34] Pigeons were abundant in Worchester County, so much so that Williams describes it as having been called “Pigeon Countrie”. They were attracted by ripe strawberries and the old garden plots of the Indians, and they were eaten in great numbers because they were well-liked and easy to kill.[35]

The techniques of taking fowl were various. Shooting with bow and arrow was one method, and Indians were very anxious to get guns and shot from the English for the same purpose.[36] Williams says that hunting involved enduring the weather, “... wading, lying, and creeping on the ground, &C.”[37] The method of getting cormorants was to sneak up on them at night as they slept on the rocks along the shore.[38] Netting birds at their feeding places was another way of capture.[39]

Hunting and Trapping: Among the animals hunted or trapped were deer, moose, beaver, bear, wolf, wild cat, racoon, otter, muskrat, and fox.[40] While all of these were eaten, the importance of the smaller animals lay mainly in their pelts. Deer seem to have been the most important of the animals that were hunted.[41] Moose and bear were also of major importance in New England, according to the evaluation of William Wood.[42] Probably the deer was more important to southern New England groups like the Wampanoags, with the frequency and relative importance of moose rising as one traveled northward.

Techniques for taking deer fall into three categories: stalking and shooting, the use of snares, and the use of drives.[43] The stalking method calls to mind the familiar image of an Indian stealthily pursuing a deer through the forest with great skill and patience, using bow and arrow as his weapons. No less important, however, was the use of snares. A snare for deer was made by bending a springy sapling down, fastening it in place, and affixing some sort of noose that would catch the deer by the leg when he, by stepping into it, released the fastening that held the tree down. Acorns were used to bait the snare. Wood tells us that the traps were “... so strong as it will tos a horse if hee be caught in it....”[44] When the Pilgrims went exploring on Cape Cod they encountered such a device:

As we wandered we came to a tree, where a young sprit was bowed down over a bow, and some acorns strewed underneath. Stephen Hopkins said, it had been to catch some deer. So as we were looking at it, William Bradford being in the rear, when he came looked also upon it, and as he went about it, it gave a sudden jerk up, and he was immediately caught by the leg. It was a very pretty device, made with a rope of their own making, and having a noose as artificially made as any roper in England can make, and as like ours as can be....[45]

These devices were also sometimes used for trapping moose, bears, wolves, wild cats and foxes.[46]

Most hunting was carried out during the fall, after a spring and summer of watching the habits and locations of the deer.[47] Ten to twenty or more men from a village would move into temporary quarters in the woods to hunt at this time, each man retiring to his own well-defined hunting territory of “... two, three or foure miles, where hee sets thirty, forty, or fiftie Traps....”[48] It was necessary to tend such a trapline closely, since the human hunter competed with other carnivores for his kill. A circuit of the traps was made every two days. Even so, the hunter might find that a wolf had been there before him, seeing which, he would set to building a trap for the wolf as well.[49]

Unlike the two proceeding techniques, taking deer by means of drives required the cooperative efforts of a number of people. This number might range from twenty to three hundred, according to one observer.[50] Fences of brush were built, sometimes a mile or two in length, through the woods, in the shape of a funnel. Deer were chased into the wider end, and Indians waited at the narrow end to shoot them as they passed. Since it was possible for the deer to leap over the fence, the hunters were careful not to startle them. Working at night, they set snares for the deer that had escaped their arrows.[51] If the evidence from other Indian groups can be applied in this case, it can be said that the hunting party included women and older children as well as the hunters themselves, and that these former were stationed along the length of the brush fence, outside it, to keep the deer from jumping over.

There is evidence that another technique of hunting common in North America, especially among the Algonquians farther north, was also used by the Wampanoags: driving the deer into water where they are more vulnerable to the hunters. There is no direct description of this process taking place, but there is the information that laws made special provision for paying the sachem within whose territory a deer was shot in the water.[52] And Williams tells us that there is a special word to designate the skin of such a deer.[53]

Another hunting device, used for beavers, otters, and wolves, was the deadfall.[54] One variety was made by piling up a large number of rocks, designed to fall on the animal which entered the trap.[55] This style of trap was used because these were animals capable of gnawing their way out of a trap that left them alive.[56]

Apparently allied to hunting, at least in part, was the practice of setting fire to the woods at intervals, in order to burn out the undergrowth.[57] Where this was not done the woods were difficult to travel through, and thick scrub would have hampered deer drives considerably.[58]

Marine Hunting: Marine hunting was not a major activity of the Wampanoags as it was of the Indian groups further to the north; however, it was practiced to some extent. Seals were taken as they napped on rocks in the warm sun.[58] Various species of whale were also common along the more exposed coasts, but it is not known if the Wampanoags actually hunted them in boats. They did make use of both the flesh and the oil of those that were cast up on the beaches.[59]

Fishing: Fish were a major dietary item in the spring and continued to be of importance during the remainder of the year. Both fresh and salt water fish were taken. These included: bass, bream, cod, mackerel, flatfish,[60] skate, haddock, striped bass, sturgeon, Atlantic salmon, shad, herring, frostfish,[61] eels, lampreys, trout, roach, dace, pike, perch, catfish and pickerel.[62] Of these the salmon, trout, shad, herring, bass, and sturgeon run up the fresh water streams from the sea.[63] Trout, roach, dace, pike, perch, catfish, and pickerel are fresh water species only.[64]

Techniques for catching fish varied with the circumstances.[65] The hook and line apparently came in for a good deal of use.[66] However, the only specific fish for which its use is mentioned are bass and cod.[67] To take these fish, the hooks were baited with lobsters.[68] Probably the hook and line was used for ice fishing during the winter, and if so it was also used for pike, perch, bream, and pickerel.[69]

Nets were used to take sturgeon.[70] Nets were placed across rivers at the falls to take bass. The trapped fish were then shot with arrows or speared.[71] Bass were also caught in weirs.[72] The tending of nets went on at night as well as during the day, the fishermen resting on the shore near small fires until it was time to check their nets.[73] Sturgeon were also taken at night—using a different technique. A torch was waved about over the side of the canoe to lure the fish. When the fish came near, an Indian in the canoe would drive a harpoon into his belly. Thus secured, the struggling fish was dragged back to shore.[74] The method of taking eels was to wade into the water, tread them out of the mud with the feet, then grab them.[75]

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

The Wampanoags’ only domesticated animal at the time the Europeans arrived was the dog.[76] Later, those Indians who adopted European culture as part of their conversion to Christianity seem to have begun keeping the types of livestock—cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, etc.—brought by the settlers.[77]

AGRICULTURE

Horticulture was a major occupation of the Wampanoags from the spring until fall. Chief among their crops was the native American corn, Zea mays. Historical sources mention a number of colors—red, blue, yellow, and white.[78] Of the squashes and their relatives (all grouped into the family Cucurbitacae) there are mentioned pumpkins and cucumbers.[79] Also cultivated was the native American variety of tobacco, Nicotiana rustica.[80]

Gardening was work done by women, except for tobacco growing, which was the business of men.[81] The implements of cultivation were such things as clam shell hoes, and fish were used for fertilizer. During the time that the corn was growing the women would weed it and protect it from birds. Watch houses might be built in the fields where the gardener or her older children would sit all day to frighten away birds.[82] Sometimes hawks were captured, tamed, and kept nearby the house in order to chase the other birds away from the corn fields.[83]

Corn might be harvested green or allowed to ripen in the fields, depending upon the use for which it was intended. Green corn seems to have been a favorite food, and to get as much as possible two plantings might be made during a summer.[84] At harvest time the women gathered in the corn and prepared it for consumption or storage.[85]

When preparing a new field the first step was to remove the forest cover. Trees were cut down, leaving only the stumps; the branches were burned on the spot. Ashes left from the burning enriched the soil. Gardens were then planted between the stumps.[86] A field thus prepared would gradually diminish in fertility over a period of years of continuous use, despite the addition of organic fertilizers (fish) with each planting. When this happened, the field was left fallow for a period of time, during which a cover of weeds and brush would develop. This cover was then burned off, the ashes worked into the soil, and the field planted again.[87]

FOOD PROCESSING

Preservation and Storage: Both animal and vegetable foods were preserved by drying.[88] With this technique, there was constant danger of spoilage through dampness. Prior to the arrival of the European settlers, salt was not available to the Wampanoags for food preservation.[89] The method of drying fish and shellfish was to cut it into thin strips and hang it on a scaffold over a fire prepared for that purpose. Both the sun and the fire worked to dry the fish quickly; the fire served the additional purpose of keeping away flies, which would have spoiled the food.[90] At night or when the weather was humid, the drying fish was moved to the warm, smoky interior of the wigwam to hang above the fireplace.[91] Corn, chestnuts, currants, beans, and acorns were also preserved by drying. There is no description of the process, save that they were spread out on mats.[92]

Vegetable foods were stored in specially constructed pits in the ground. After they had been dug, the pits were lined with woven mats. The dried fruits or vegetables that were to be stored were put into large baskets (The Pilgrims told of digging up one such basket that had a capacity of three or four bushels[93]); the baskets were put into the pits, covered with more mats and perhaps wooden planks, and the whole thing was covered with earth so that a small mound marking the place was formed.[94] When such could be obtained, a metal pot rather than a basket might serve as a storage container.[95] The dried fish was also stored for winter use, but there is no mention of its being put into the storage pits. It might have been kept in some sort of woven or bark container in the house.[96]

Food Preparation: Meat and fish were prepared by boiling or roasting.[97] Meat was roasted by putting it on the end of a forked stick placed in the ground near the fire.[98] Fresh or dried meat, fish, and shellfish were cut into small pieces and boiled into a stew—whose constituent parts probably varied according to what was available on any given day. A pot of this stew was probably kept over the fire almost all the time, and as some was eaten new ingredients were added. As the following passage by Wood suggests, it was “... made thicke with Fishes, Fowles, and Beasts boyled all together; some remaining raw, the rest converted by over-much seething to a loathed mash....”[99] Vegetables were also added to the stew pot. Jerusalem artichokes, ground nuts and other roots, pumpkins, squashes, corn, and beans are mentioned specifically.[100] Walnuts, acorns, and chestnuts were ground into a powder and added to the broth to thicken it.[101] Clam juice, which functioned as a substitute for salt, was added as seasoning.[102] Williams tells of another sort of dish, prepared from the heads of bass, “... the braines and fat of it being very much and sweet as marrow”.[103] Notes by John Winthrop give the designation Sukatash to a dish which is venison, fish and Indian corn boiled together.[104]

Vegetable foods were also prepared in a number of other ways and combinations. Whole corn was boiled—with or without beans.[105] Corn ground into meal was an important item in the diet of the Wampanoags. Corn kernels were dried and parched in the coals of the fire. Ashes were then sifted out of the parched corn, and it was ground fine with hand milling equipment. A woman then sifted the meal through a basketry sieve to catch out unground lumps, and the result was a meal called Nocake. Nocake was the food of anyone when on a journey away from home. A few spoonfuls made a meal; it was taken with water to facilitate swallowing.[106]

For use at home, the parched meal might be mixed with water and boiled into a porridge.[107] In a more elaborate recipe it was mixed with crushed strawberries, made into dough, wrapped in leaves and baked in the ashes to make a kind of bread.[108] It was also made into small cakes that were boiled. Williams mentions a dish made by mixing corn meal with powdered dried currants, “... which is as sweet to them as plum or spice cake to the English”.[109] He also says that clam juice was used as a seasoning for bread.[110]

Of the nuts used by the Wampanoags, acorns required additional work, since the bitter tannic acid had to be removed from them by some sort of leaching process before they could be eaten. This was done by boiling.[111] Oil was extracted from walnuts and used for a variety of purposes.[112]

FOOD CONSUMPTION

The diet of the Wampanoags, because of their seasonal cycle of resource use, varied considerably. While many kinds of food were preserved for use beyond their season by drying, the supply was probably not so great that the diet was identical throughout the year, if only in terms of the relative quantities of the kinds of food eaten. The diet of the Wampanoags included several varieties of land animals,[113] of which deer were probably the most important. Fresh and salt water fish, shellfish, fowl, and marine mammals, such as were available, were also eaten. Corn, beans, and cucurbits, which they raised, plus various wild nuts, roots, and fruits made up the vegetable part of the diet. While there is evidence that the Indians in Maine used maple sugar, there seems to have been none used in southeastern New England aboriginally.[114] Altogether, according to Bennett, who has made a study of the diet of the Indians of southeastern New England, the Indian diet included more vegetable products than the diet of Europeans living in the same area today.[115]

Squashes came to replace corn as the dietary mainstay in the late summer.[116] Clams seem to have been dug in all seasons of the year; they are spoken of as a food to which the Wampanoags turned when other sources of food dwindled.[117] Acorns were also a food turned to when the preferred diet was scarce, although sometimes they were eaten when there was plenty of corn, as a novelty item.[118] Writing of a visit to the Plymouth area in June, Martin Pring noted that the food the Indians were eating at that time of the year was mostly fish.[119]

There is not a great deal known about Wampanoag eating habits, but some general impressions can be put together. Morton tells us that “... they feede continually”.[120] Wood, on the other hand, notes that it was “... their fashion to eate all at some times, and sometimes nothing at all in two or three dayes....”[121] The apparent contradiction is probably the result of the two observers looking at different sets of cultural circumstances. When there was food available in abundance, everyone probably ate, according to his wishes, out of the stew pot at any time. There were also formal meals held on at least the following occasions: when a guest arrived (i.e. visiting Englishman) and when groups would gather for games and dances. Wood gives a description of what such a “sit-down” meal was like:

... dishing it up in a rude manner, placing it on the verdant carpet of the earth which Nature spreads them, without either trenchers, napkins, or knives, upon which their hunger-sawced stomacks impatient of delayes fals aboard without scrupling at unwashed hands, without bread, salt or beere: Lolling on the Turkish fashion, not ceasing till their full bellies leave nothing but emptie platters ... eating three or foure cornes with a mouthfull of fish or flesh, sometimes eating meate first, and cornes after, filling chinkes with their broth ... At home they will eate till their bellies stand forth ready to split with fullness....[122]

At this type of meal the men ate, and the women waited upon them, being paid by the favor of a bite from time to time.[123] Eating was done from individual wooden bowls, with fingers or spoon, depending upon the consistency of the food.[124]

When one was away from home on a journey and not near enough to any settlement to go there for hospitality, he ate from his pouch of parched corn meal. This might be eaten quickly if he were in a hurry to be off again, by gulping down three spoonfuls of corn meal with some water. A more leisurely meal was one for which the traveler took the trouble to build a fire and cook the meal to eat it hot.[125]

Food seems to have been shared liberally with anyone who was around when people were eating, no matter what it was or how much there was at the time.[126]

Diet was one area in which the arrival of the Europeans seems not to have had much influence. Composition of the diet remained the same as it was aboriginally until the time of King Philip’s War.[127]

DRINK, DRUGS AND INDULGENCE

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans there was no knowledge of alcohol among the Indians of the New England area. Once introduced, however, it became a popular item of trade, and Indians learned how to produce it for themselves.[128]

The Wampanoags and their neighbors, however, did smoke the native American variety of tobacco, Nicotiana rustica.[129] This strong variety of tobacco would not be appealing to modern American tastes. The only place where it is used commercially today is in the USSR. In one instance at least—where the writer characterized the tobacco as weak—it is likely that some was mixed with other plant material preparatory to smoking.[130] Tobacco leaves were picked green, dried, crushed, and smoked in pipes.[131]

Tobacco was used frequently.[132] Smoking was a pleasant diversion. When friends met on the trail they would stop, smoke together, and talk.[133] Tobacco apparently also was used by women.[134] Besides being a refreshing indulgence, taking tobacco was thought to be a helpful remedy “... against the rheume, which causeth the toothake....”[135]

LEATHER, TEXTILES, FABRICS

Work in Skins: Most of the clothing worn by the Wampanoags was made from the skins of animals. Deerskin was an excellent material for clothing, since it was tough but thin enough to be made pliable, was large enough to be used with a minimum of piecing, and was readily available in the environment. Moose hide was used for similar purposes, but being heavier it was perhaps more popular for making shoes.[136]

Deerskin was scraped to remove the flesh, and the tanning process involved working oil into the hide to make it soft and also resistant to water.[137] Thus prepared, the skin used in a pair of leggings could stand to be gotten wet, rung out, hung up and dried by the fire without being harmed by the experience.[138] When a deer was killed during the winter, the thick coat of hair was usually left on the hide.[139] Moose skins were de-haired as a matter of course, according to Morton.[140] Deer and moose skins with the hair removed were decorated by painting or by embroidery.[141] To be a proper skin for wearing, a deerskin had to have the tail left on.[142]

The skins of other game were also used as clothing. Bear, otter, raccoon, beaver, fox and cat skins are mentioned as having been used, although the particulars of their preparation are not recorded.[143] Sometimes the skins of animals not available in the immediate vicinity were traded for from neighboring tribes.[144] The skins of all these animals, including deer, were used also for bedding.[145] Leather was used in the manufacture of bags for carrying fire lighting equipment, tobacco, and parched corn meal. The latter type is described as being long and narrow and carried either slung on the back or tied around the waist.[146]

Contemporary observers do not mention any further uses of leather by the Wampanoags. Among several groups of Indians, such as those who lived by hunting on the Great Plains, leather served not only for clothing, but as the only material available for housing and cordage. Living as they did in the woodlands, the Wampanoags had available a variety of suitable plant material which they used for various kinds of basketry and cordage that served the multitude of purposes served by leather in other regions. Thus among the Wampanoags leather might have been used as the lashings to hold the framing of houses together, or plant fiber might have served this purpose, or both. Such alternatives were available, but it is not known exactly what use the Wampanoags made of them.

Cordage, Netting, Basketry: The Wampanoags used the stems and fibers of several plants for containers, house coverings, nets, clothing, etc.[147] Among the plants used were: bulrushes, bent grass (perhaps also other types of grasses), maize husks, “silk grass”, wild hemp (also called Indian hemp and dogbane—Apocynum cannabenum), flag leaves, basswood fiber, and the bast of other trees with fine inner bark, such as the linden and slippery elm.[148]

Most cordage was made from wild hemp. Basically, the manufacture of cordage consisted of removing the long fibers from the stems of the plant and joining these by twisting and braiding until the desired thickness and length of cord was obtained. The Indians appeared quite skillful in this craft: “... their cordage is so even, soft, and smooth, that it looks more like silke than hempe....”[149] Wild hemp cordage was used in several ways. It was used to make fishing lines.[150] It was also used for tying hooks onto these lines.[151] Hemp cordage was looped into fishnets.[152] One of these, used for sturgeon, is described as being 30 to 40 feet in length.[153] Large storage bags were made out of this material, in a weaving technique known as twining. These were flat and rectangular in shape; their capacity was five or six bushels. They were used for storing food both in the underground pits and inside the houses.[154] Similar bags were also made out of bast fiber.[155]

Hemp is mentioned as having been used in making baskets, where it probably served as weft strands.[156] Hemp cordage was also used to sew together a certain kind of house covering mat.[157] And it was used, along with grasses for woven capes.[158] Mantles were also woven out of turkey feathers, or the feathers of other birds, and cordage.[159] The feathers were probably twisted in among the hemp strands.[160] Such weaving was done without looms.

Matting was produced by two basic techniques, by sewing or by weaving the component elements together. In sewn mats, flag leaves were sewed together with wild hemp thread, using a bone needle.[161] Woven mats were plaited from bulrushes.[162] These latter were used to line the interior of the house, to sit upon, and for spreading out food to dry.[163] Matting was an item that came in for extensive use in the daily lives of the Wampanoags. Besides being a building material, it was used to line storage pits; it also lined or covered their graves.

Basketry was another important item made by the Wampanoags, although their use of basketry was not as extensive as in certain other North American Indian groups. Basketry everywhere serves what is basically a container function, and among the Wampanoags there were available pottery, birch bark boxes, pouches of leather, wooden dishes, and later the metal pots and kettles brought by Europeans—all of which could carry out the job of holding something.

Baskets were made in a number of sizes and shapes, of several different materials, and of varying fineness depending upon the purpose to be served.[164] There were two techniques for weaving baskets, twining and plaiting, though there were probably enough variations upon these basic techniques that not all baskets looked alike to the casual observer. Twined basketry was the more common type at the time that the Europeans arrived in New England. The baskets of “Hempe and Rushes” that Wood describes were probably made by this technique.[165] The manufacture of twined basketry involves wrapping a horizontal weft element, the hemp in this case, around what is usually a more rigid warp, the bulrushes. The basketry made by the plaited technique is what is meant by the term “splint basketry”. In this case, both warp and weft are equally rigid “splints” and are combined by placing each alternately over the other so that, in the most basic pattern, a checkerboard effect results. Basketry made by this technique became more popular during the historic period, and eventually this was the only type made by the Indians in the New England area. At the time New England was being colonized, the main use of splint basketry was in the processing of corn. Square sieves for sifting corn meal were made by the plaiting technique, with varying grades of mesh to sort out ground and hulled corn for various uses.[166] Collecting baskets for harvesting corn were also made by this technique. The basket was worn strapped to the back, secured by a strap across the chest. A larger version of the basket stood at the edge of the field, for transporting the harvested ears of corn back to the house.[167]

Willoughby gives this description of obtaining and processing the materials for splint baskets:

... small ash, white oak, or other suitable trees, were cut in the spring. The logs were sometimes soaked in water, although this was not always necessary. They were then peeled and beaten with wooden mauls until the annual growth layers were separated one from another. These were split into various widths and assorted, strips of uniform size being bound together in bunches or coils.[168]

Baskets were also used to carry the parched corn meal of a traveler (in place of the deerskin pouch).[169] Large baskets, an alternative to bags of hemp, were used to store food in the underground storage pits.[170] One kind of arrow quiver was made of basketry.[171] When moving from place to place during the year, basketry and soft woven bags seem likely to have been the containers in which the Wampanoags carried their baggage.[172]

Very few decorated baskets are known to have survived from this period. The reports of early observers note that baskets were decorated in various colors.[173] A basket seen by the Pilgrims is described as being “... curiously wrought in black and white in pretty works....”[174] But from such scant information it is possible to generalize about decorative style.[175]

CLOTHING

The basic dress for both men and women was the breech clout—a length of deerskin that was looped over a belt in back, passed between the legs, and looped over a belt again in front.[176] In post-contact times this garment was sometimes made of cloth.[177] The breech clout was worn at all times by adults.[178] Female children wore such a garment or its equivalent from early infancy; male children went naked until they were ten or twelve years old.[179]

The Wampanoags did not wear a great deal of additional clothing. For additional protection from insects and cold, the Indians usually wore a thick coating of animal or vegetable fat.[180] The Wampanoags might put on leggings when traveling through scratchy undergrowth. Leggings consisted of two tubes of deerskin, extending from ankle to groin, fastened into the moccasin at the lower end and held up by attaching them to the belt.[181] Leggings were worn by both sexes; those worn by the women may have been somewhat shorter.[182] Leggings were also worn as a protection against the cold, especially by the older people.[183]

Skin capes were a common item of clothing for both sexes.[184] Women’s capes, about twice as long as those worn by men, are reported to have hung down behind like a train.[185] Capes for summer wear were of deerskin—either worn hair side out or made of de-haired skins. For winter wear the hair was left on and turned to the inside.[186] The skins of Beaver, otter, racoon, bear, and fox—the smaller ones being sewed together—were also used for winter mantles.[187] Mantles made of turkey feathers were mentioned previously.[188]

Champlain reported that Indians on Cape Cod (probably Nauset) wore capes woven of grass and hemp fibers.[189] These extended to the thighs and may have been worn in summer as a protection against insects. Or, perhaps they were for special occasions. One fragment of such a mantle, excavated along with a burial near Manchester, Massachusetts, was made of twilled bast fiber.[190] The lower edge of the garment was fringed.[191]

The skin mantle was usually worn passed under the right arm, brought over the left shoulder, and the two ends fastened.[192] For traveling or other activity the garment was bound tight against the body with a belt.[193] In very cold weather the exposed arm was covered with a detachable fur sleeve which was tied on.[194] In the absence of the sleeve, the mantle might be allowed to hang loose, and the wearer alternately cover whichever shoulder was exposed to the wind as he walked.[195]

Both men and women wore moccasins. The preferred material for these was moose hide, but in its absence, deerskin served.[196] Everyone went barefoot in the summer, but they usually carried their moccasins slung on their backs in case of having to travel over very rough ground.[197]

Contact with Europeans brought changes in the style and the material of some Indians’ clothing. Indians were encouraged to adopt English styles of dress as part of the process of their conversion to Christianity. Many, however, found the European style of clothing a nuisance. Wood says: “... their chief reasons they render why they will not conforme to our English apparell, are, because their women cannot wash them when they bee soyled, and their means will not reach to buy new when they have done with their old; and they confidently beleeve, the English will not be so liberall as to furnish them upon gifture: therefore they had rather goe naked than be lousie....”[198] Often, articles of English clothing were worn for special occasions.[199] Some Indians began selling all their skins to European traders and using cloth to make their traditional garments.[200] The cloth which they preferred was a blanket material called “duffils” or “trucking cloth”.[201] Whatever the style and material of their clothing, however, the Wampanoags preferred to wear only the loincloth when they were in their own houses.[202]

Ornament: Copper or brass, breast-plates, necklaces, bandoliers, etc. are often mentioned by explorers who visited the New England coast prior to the establishment of permanent settlements.[203] A change in fashion apparently took place among the Indians of southeastern New England during the early historic period, however, for colonial writers describe the same types of ornaments as being made of shell.

Breast-plates were solid sheets of copper or brass hammered thin and flat.[204] They were about a foot in length and half that wide.[205] Sheet copper was also made into tubular beads. These were about four inches long and a quarter of an inch in diameter. They were made by bending the sheet of metal around a stick from which the pith had been removed to form a hole for stringing.[206] Tubular beads were strung together (long axes parallel) to make bandoliers. Bandoliers were worn diagonally across the chest or sometimes as belts around the waist.[207] Similar fillets made of shorter copper beads were probably worn as headbands.[208] Tubular copper beads strung end to end were worn as necklaces.[209] Gorgets and pendant earrings were also made out of copper and brass.[210]

By the time the Pilgrims arrived, shell ornaments apparently had replaced the metal ornaments which earlier chroniclers said were worn by everyone, for none of the colonial writers mentions Indians wearing copper or brass ornaments.[211] Most shell ornament was based on beadwork, although shell, along with bone and stone was used for ear pendants—cut-outs of birds, fish, and other animals.[212] By at least 1647 wampum was the most popular style of shell beads.[213]

Wampum served as “money” and as ornament. It was introduced into Plymouth colony as an item of exchange in 1627 by the Dutch, for although it was common among Indians to the south, it was virtually unknown as an item of trading value to Indians around Plymouth and farther north.[214] Important people in the tribe had a few ornaments of wampum prior to 1627. Altham describes Massasoit in 1623 as wearing a belt of shell beads that were probably wampum.[215] After a slow start in Plymouth, wampum increased in popularity until it was common to see Indians wearing bracelets, necklaces, headbands, and belts, woven in various designs of small purple and white beads.[216] Collars, caps, and ear pendents were also made of wampum.[217] The beads were strung end to end as well as being woven in bands.[218]

The wampum made in southern New England was fashioned from the shells of the quahog, or hard-shelled clam (Venus mercenaria).[219] Bead blanks were first roughed out from the whole shell then drilled with a stone (later metal—introduced by Europeans) drill. Beads were then strung together and ground into their final shape with an abrasive stone.[220]

There were other, less popular, styles of shell beads and beadwork.[221] Sometimes small discoidal beads (probably quahog and periwinkle) were used instead of the tubular wampum for beadwork, as necklaces, bracelets, and hair ornaments. Like wampum, these beads were white and purple in color.[222] There were also large tubular shell beads that were strung for necklaces.[223]

Bone and seeds were also used for beads,[224] and early explorers report necklaces of variously colored stones.[225]

Besides jewelry, the Wampanoags used painting and tattooing as means of personal adornment. Tattooing was done by two techniques. A sharp instrument was used to pierce and lift a small area of skin, and black pigment was inserted into the wound. By repeating these small incisions close together, decorative lines were formed. This form of tattooing was done on the cheeks; the patterns were zoomorphic “... as Beares, Deares, Mooses, Wolves, &c., some of fowls, as of Eagles, Hawkes, &c....”[226] The other technique of tattooing was accomplished by “branding” with a hot iron. Geometrical shapes were applied to the arms and chest by this method.[227]

Body painting was done in red, yellow, white, and black. Red powder was sometimes put onto the hair.[228] The body and hair were prepared for painting by a thorough greasing; the grease provided a bond for the pigment.[229] Different colors might be used on various sections of the face, or a single color might be used for the whole face.[230] Both men and women wore paint. Paint was worn for mourning, for war ceremonial or festive occasions, and for games.[231] Warriors used lurid coloring to make them appear more terrible to the enemy.[232] Painting the face black, with soot and ashes, was a symbol of mourning.[233] There were undoubtedly many other associations between styles of painting and specific events or social groups, but they were not recorded by seventeenth century observers.

Hairdressing: Of hairdressing, Lechford reported: “They cut their haire of divers formes, according to their Nation or people so that you may know a people by their cut....”[234] There was also variation in hairstyle within the social group. An unmarried girl could be distinguished from a married women by her hair style.[235] At marriage, the women’s hair was cut off, and until her hair grew back she wore a covering on her head.[236] A young man who was not yet a warrior could be identified by his short haircut.[237] Further variation noted among the adults of the same tribe may mean that various kin groups used distinctive styles of hairdressing.[238] Long hair was highly prized, and wearing the hair in a tight “pony tail” was said to make it grow faster.[239] Hairdressing was a daily activity which involved oiling and, according to one writer, dyeing.[240]

Probable Wampanoag hairstyles include the following: hair cut short into bangs in the front, the remainder falling free to the shoulders; hair braided into four braids with part of this knotted behind, and with feathers and other sorts of ornaments stuck into the knot; hair shaved from the front and sides of the head, the remainder left long and made into a knot with feathers in it.[241]

Various forms of ornament, frequently feathers, were an integral part of certain hairstyles. Turkey and eagle feathers are mentioned specifically for this purpose.[242] Single feathers might be stuck into a knotted portion or otherwise intertwined with the hair.[243] Feathers were sometimes joined fan-shape and put into the hair. Fox tails and other fur were also used for hair ornament. Strips of deer hides, dyed red, were tied on, in the manner of a cock’s comb.[244] Other ornaments included ribbons of European manufacture and ornamental combs carved from antler.[245]

Specific information on female styles of hairdress is slight. Champlain describes one style which was a combination of free-falling hair in back and various braids for the rest.[246] Beyond this, there are no descriptions that relate to the Wampanoags.

Sources are contradictory in the subject of facial hair. Some writers report that Indians in this region generally despised and plucked out what little facial hair they had.[247] Another writer of the same period relates that these Indians were at pains to preserve their own thin beards and to add to them by fastening on animal hair.[248]

EXPLOITATIVE ACTIVITIES

Lumbering and Forest Products: Prior to contact with Europeans the Wampanoags used stone tools for lumbering. Large trees felled with these primitive implements were used for the manufacture of dugout canoes.[249] Birch bark, another product of the forest, provided the material for house coverings and containers of various sorts as well as material for another type of canoe. As the range of the canoe birch (B. papyrifera) had its southern limit at Cape Anne on the immediate coast, the use of birch bark by the Wampanoags was probably not so extensive as that of some of their neighbors.[250] Nevertheless, by trade and by seeking out individuals of the species that grew beyond their range, birch bark was obtained and used as an alternative material for the items mentioned above.

Carved wooden bowls and spoons are said to have been a craft specialty of the Wampanoags. Burls were selected for carving material in order to avoid the problem of splitting along the grain when an item was subjected to repeated wetting and drying. Small objects such as fish hooks were sometimes made of wood, and there were other more obvious uses such as poles for house frames, arrowshafts and handles for tools. Bast fiber (inner bark) was used for various woven items. A red dye was made from pine bark.[251] Turpentine and pitch were also products of the pines.[252]

Mining and Quarrying: Both soapstones for bowls and pipes and native copper for ornaments were obtained aboriginally by New England Indian groups. So far as is known, however, the Wampanoags did none of the extraction of these materials themselves. They obtained either the materials or the finished products through trade.[253]

Pigments were probably obtained at various local outcroppings. Limonite furnished yellow; hematite served for some of the reds. The stone used for tools and weapons—quartz and slate—was also locally occurring material.[254] Clay for potting was available in the Plymouth area.[255]

PROCESSING OF BASIC MATERIALS

There is documentary evidence on the manufacture of only a few of the articles fashioned by the Indians out of the products of their environment. In most cases this evidence is fragmentary. What is available is discussed below:

Stonecarving: Both pipes and bowls were carved out of soapstone. As far as is known, most of this work was done by the Narragansetts in Rhode Island; their products were traded into the Plymouth area. Bowls of soapstone were produced wholly or in part at the quarry where the raw material was obtained. Working with picks and chisels of harder stone (later, presumably, with metal tools) the craftsman would rough out the general shape of the bowl, bottom side up, while it was still attached to the parent block. Then he would begin chipping away underneath the bowl and by inserting a wedge remove it from the quarry. The inside of the bowl was then hollowed out with smaller stone adzes and chisels.[256]

Soapstone pipes required considerable skill to manufacture, owing to their small size. Some of these were elaborately ornamented with carved figures, but authorities are still not sure whether the more elaborate pipes were locally made or traded into the Narragansett territory from elsewhere.[257] Shaping and drilling were originally done with stone tools, but steel drills were later used in pipe manufacture.[258]

Metallurgy: The Indians learned to cast metal from the English. Pewter, brass, and presumably lead (for shot) were cast into ornaments, buttons, ammunition, and gun parts.[259]

Buttons and other small ornaments were cast out of pewter using one-piece moulds carved from soft stone. Finishing was done by trimming and grinding away the rough edges. The eyes of buttons were made by trimming the metal with a knife.[260]

Woodworking: The Wampanoags were noted for their skill in woodworking. They made dugout canoes which might be as much as fifty feet long.[261] To make a canoe a suitable tree was first selected then laboriously felled with a stone axe. (During historic times metal tools came to perform this function and others in the process of manufacture.)[262] Initial hollowing out of the log was done by burning.[263] Either the wood was set afire or hot stones were placed on it.[264] The fire was carefully controlled; the idea was to remove the inside and leave the outside intact on three sides.[265] The process was a slow one, taking some ten to twelve days.[266] When the interior had been burned out as much as possible, the job of hollowing and smoothing was finished with shell scrapers.[267] The outside was hewn into shape with stone hatchets and the whole craft was finished by sanding it with an abrasive stone.[268] A similar procedure on a smaller scale was used to fashion wooden bowls and spoons and other such utensils. A bowl was first hollowed out by burning and then smoothed to a high polish with abrasive stones.[269]

Birch bark canoes were made by the Massachusetts, and Pring reports them in use by the Wampanoag.[270] The vessels or the material for them might have been obtained in trade, or, as one writer suggests, suitable-sized pieces of bark may have been achieved by piecing together the bark of birches that were stunted stragglers outside their normal range.[271] Birch bark canoes have the advantage of being light and easily transported over portages.[272] These canoes were joined by sewing, probably with bast fiber or something similar.[273] The seams were caulked with rosin from the pitch pine.[274] The vessels were strengthened by placing broad, thin ribs across the inside rather close together.[275]

Other Manufactures: The Indians also made glue of a combination of deer antler and “fishes sounds”.[276] Its use is mentioned for fletching arrows.

STRUCTURES

Architecture: There were two basic architectural styles used by the Wampanoags, both variations on a single structural type: A framework made of poles—large ends set into the ground, smaller ends bent to meet each other and lashed together—along with a series of horizontal elements that crossed the uprights at regular intervals and a covering of bark or woven mats. The smaller of the two styles was round in floor plan, and basically hemispherical in shape.[277] The larger type was oblong or oval in its floor plan, the side framework being two rows of parallel poles, retaining the rounded proof pattern.[278]

Dwellings: Both styles of house were used as dwellings; which one was used depended upon the season of the year. The larger house was a winter dwelling, the type used when the various constituent families of a village met to live together for that season. Dimensions varied, depending upon the size of the group that was living in the house.[279] They are described as being about thirty feet wide and ranging from fifty to one hundred feet in length.[280] Each family unit that lived in the house had its own fireplace, and a smoke hole was left in the roof over each of these.[281] There was a door at each end of the house.[282]

During the summer, when the Wampanoags were engaged in gardening, ocean fishing, and shellfish collecting, the smaller, round house was used. This is the sort of house, probably occupied by one or two nuclear family units, that early explorers saw strung out along the New England coast.[283] The size of the house varied according to the number of people to be fit in. Fifteen to twenty feet would probably be a good estimate of average diameter.[284]

The fireplace was located in the center of the floor, and above it was a smoke hole about one and a half feet across, which had a mat to cover it when the wind was strong.[285] Doorways were low—about a yard high—and had a mat or bark covering.[286] The location of the door was shifted as the wind changed; several panels were left with detachable coverings for this purpose.[287] Some Indians got boards and nails from the English and made doors and bolts for their wigwams after the fashion of the colonists. Both kinds of doors were fastened at night or if the family were leaving for a journey. In the latter case, the last one to leave fastened the door from the inside and left the house via the smoke hole.[288]

House frames for both styles of house were lashed together. One material mentioned for this use was walnut bark.[289] The outer covering of the house was either bark or matting. The mats were made of coarse grasses such as flagg or bulrush by sewing or weaving.[290] The bark used for house coverings was birch or chestnut.[291] It was removed from the trees when the “sap was up”. Sheets of green bark were placed under heavy logs to keep them from curling while they dried.[292] Bark-covered houses were considered to be warmer and preferable to those covered with mats.[293]

Bark covering is mentioned as being customary for summer houses of the Narragansetts.[294] Probably bark covering was the rule for winter village longhouses, since it was warmer. For groups dwelling along the coast and on Cape Cod, mat covering is most frequently mentioned.[295] Portability rather than warmth was likely the important factor in “summer” house coverings, since they also had to serve as covering for the hunting house in the fall and the fishing house in the spring. For this reason, mats were probably preferred over bark for summer houses. House frames were left standing when the family moved, and they were re-used the next year.

These houses were largely both dry and warm. There was a second layer of matting made of bulrushes on the inside of the house for added insulation. Since they were small and the fire was always burning, they were quite smoky, especially when the smoke hole and the door were closed against the elements. At such times the people inside often had to lie close to the floor in order to breathe properly.[296]

Other Structures: The Wampanoags had several other kinds of structures. Unfortunately, detailed descriptions of these are for the most part nonexistent.

It is reported that the houses of chiefs were different from the ordinary dwelling. They were larger, and finer mats were used for their walls.[297] Also different was the hunting house, which served as a base of operations for the fall hunting season. It provided shelter and a place to store the paraphernalia used in hunting.[298] Available data on construction tells only that they were of a more temporary nature than the regular dwelling house and that “barks and rushes” were used in the building.[299] Another structure was the dance house, built for ceremonial occasions. This was a longhouse measuring as much as one or two hundred feet.[300]

Other outbuildings in the settlement included: watch houses in the corn fields, menstrual huts, and sweat houses.[301] Of these, there is some information on the structural details of the sweat houses. They were commonly constructed by excavating a cave into the side of a hill. Sometimes an earth-covered extension was built out from the side of the cave, forming a structure that altogether measured about eight feet in diameter and four feet in height. The door covering was a blanket or a skin. The sweat house was placed as near as possible to a stream or lake, so that the bathers could plunge themselves into cold water at the termination of the bath. Heat was provided by a pile of stones heated on a fire.[302]

EQUIPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF BUILDINGS

The furnishings of Wampanoag houses were simple. This was necessary because of the Indians’ mobile life. All household equipment, including the covering of the house itself, had to be carried from camp to camp by the women of the household.

The interiors of houses were lined with bulrush matting. This was decorated with painting or “embroidery”.[303] Beds were family-sized—about six to eight feet across.[304] They were raised a foot to a foot and a half off the ground.[305] Forked sticks were set into the ground to hold poles, across which planks were laid.[306] Rush mats served as the mattress, and the sleepers covered themselves with skins, dressed with the hair left on.[307] Such a bed served the entire family and any visitors they might have.

The remainder of the furnishings consisted mainly of the various containers used for storage, cooking, and food service.[308] Cooking pots were sometimes made of clay, but if possible iron, brass, or copper kettles were obtained from the Europeans, since these were not so easily broken.[309] Birch bark pails were used as water containers, while various sizes of bags and baskets served to store food.[310] Carved wooden bowls, plates, and spoons were also part of the furniture, and some milling equipment probably occupied an indoor place.[311]

Indoor fires were always kept burning.[312] Fuel was either what windfalls could be gathered or an occasional larger tree which was cut and dragged in to be fed into the fireplace by degrees.[313] Over the fireplace, which was a simple hearth made of field stones, there was often a square frame of sticks, supported on forked branches.[314] Pots were hung from this framework. There was almost always a pot of boiling food over the fire, or else there was meat suspended on a stick whose end was buried in the ground.[315] Drying fish or meat was also kept in the house at times—to benefit from the fire when the weather outside was damp. Bundles of rushes, bast fiber, hemp, and the like for making mats and baskets probably would have about completed the inventory of household goods, save for personal possessions and tools.[316]

SETTLEMENT

Descriptions of village layouts, locations and sizes are virtually nonexistent. What information there is, along with some suggested interpretations, is offered as follows:

Both Champlain’s map and drawings of Wampanoag houses at Plymouth harbor suggest that the summer coastal settlements were laid out with each family’s house (or in some cases, probably each wife’s house) being located amid or beside its field.[317] Average field size was probably about one acre.[318] Drawings made by Champlain show fields fenced with parallel poles placed upright in the manner of a low stockade.[319] It was in these summer villages that the Wampanoags spent the most time during the year.[320] Actually, a family might make one or two moves during the summer, although staying in the same general area. When the fields planted later in the season were too far away for convenience, the family would move into another house near the field they were currently cultivating. Another resident of southern coastal New England, the flea, sometimes prompted a shift in residence during the summer. Fleas lived in the dust in the houses, and when they became unbearable an Indian family would move to a fresh dwelling.[321]

Reports of visitors to the southern New England coast prior to the plague give the impression that settlements of the “summer village” type were strung out all along the coast.[322] Settlements apparently were variable in size.[323] Writers who made this observation may have been looking both at actual variation in total group size and at seasonal variation in population concentration and dispersal. The most concentrated settlements were the winter villages.[324] A longhouse in one of the winter villages might shelter 40 or 50 people; there is no indication as to the number of longhouses that might have been found in such a village.[323]

Fall hunting encampments were, like the summer settlements, dispersed. Men moved onto the lands to which they had the hunting rights. Since more land was needed for hunting than farming, the spread of dwellings would have been much thinner. As for the spring fishing camps, it is known only that large numbers of people gathered at them; sources give no hint of settlement pattern.

ENERGY AND POWER

The principal source of light and heat for the Wampanoags was the same fire over which they cooked their meals. Additional light was sometimes provided by torches. One variety was made of birch bark and was used in night fishing.[324] Pine splints also served as torches, used for lighting the interiors of houses.[325]

Both percussion and friction methods of fire-making were used. For kindling fire by percussion the Indian carried with him a small pouch containing the proper materials for striking a light—a piece of spongy dry wood for tinder and stones for producing the spark. One stone was fastened onto the tinder stick to more surely catch the spark when it fell.[326]

Aside from fire for heat, light, and cooking, and occasional use of the sail, no naturally occurring sources of energy and power were controlled by the Wampanoags.

COMMUNICATION

The Wampanoags did not use any mechanical devices, such as whistles or drums for sending messages. Instead, they used their voices to call out information. When news had to be transmitted beyond shouting distance, a messenger was sent. If he had trouble locating his destination he would give a shout when he thought himself a mile or so away, and answering calls would guide him to the village he sought.[327]

Since they had no system of writing, all information that was to be passed on to other people, whether news of the day or tribal tradition, had to be memorized. To help in this task pre-literate societies sometimes use mnemonic devices. The Wampanoag had such a practice. Along the side of trails, near the place where some event of historical significance had occurred, they dug small holes, about a foot deep and a foot wide to mark the spot. These were meticulously re-excavated when they seemed to be filling in. As a Wampanoag passed through his country the sight of these markers reminded him of the stories they represented. Thus reminded, he would tell them to others.[328]

EXCHANGE

Gift Giving: Dances were held periodically, and at these the dancers would dole out presents such as wampum, to the spectators. Each man who was to dance would take his turn at it, giving away his possessions bit by bit until he had no more to give and was exhausted from dancing.[329]

At the Nickomo feast, held in the winter, the person giving the feast, besides providing food for perhaps hundreds of people (the size of the guest list depended upon what one could afford to pay for) presented goods and money to his guests.[330] Upon receipt of the gift, the guest would call out three times an invocation for the prosperity of his host.[331]

Trade: The several groups of Indians of southeastern New England traded among themselves in pottery vessels, wooden bowls, bows, arrows, pipes, shell money, stone bowls, skins, and food products of the hunt and the fields.[332] The manufacture of some of these items appears to have been specialized according to local group. That is, the women of one locality seem to have made cooking pots, and these were traded to the women of other groups.[333] Wooden bowls seem to have been the specialty of the Wampanoags. Soapstone pipes and bowls were produced by the Narragansetts and were traded north at least to Cape Cod.[334] At a time that was probably early in the seventeenth century the Narragansetts also took over the production of wampum for the region. Craftsmen spent the summer collecting suitable shells and the winter making the beads.[335] Trade in furs among Indian groups was not highly developed prior to the arrival of Europeans. It seems to have been mainly a matter of trading for kinds of skins that were scarce or finer than those in one’s own territory.[336] Food was probably traded according to need. It was also traded on the basis of geographical location, coastal tribes exchanging with interior tribes.[337]

The arrival of Europeans in the New World provided a great trade stimulus. The major trading interest between Indians and Europeans was the fur trade. Here coastal dwelling Indian groups such as the Wampanoags took the advantage. Being first to meet the Europeans, they quickly established themselves as go-betweens in the trade, and besides doing trapping of their own, they traded for the furs of inland tribes, which they then traded to the Europeans for a profit.[338] The fur trade caused increased emphasis upon hunting and trapping. Since it was more profitable to trade skins than to wear them, the fur trade was a force that encouraged Indians to adopt European textiles and dress.

The fur trade also was responsible for the introduction of wampum into Wampanoag culture. Wampum, used as money, was a trait belonging to Indian groups to the south. Purple wampum may have first originated on Long Island.[339] When the Dutch settled New Netherland, they found it a convenient medium of exchange and adopted it. The regular use and production of wampum found its way north to the Narragansetts, but it did not become popular with the Wampanoags until after 1627, the year in which the Dutch first brought wampum to Plymouth and suggested its virtues to the English settlers there.[340] Once its value was appreciated, Indians of the Plymouth area began to make it also.[341] Within the next twenty years, wampum as ornament and money became ingrained in Wampanoag culture.

Purple wampum was double the value of white. Wampum was reckoned in value by count, 360 white beads equalling a fathom, which was worth five shillings. This number of beads might exceed or fall short of a fathom in linear measure, but the number of beads rather than actual length was the important criterion.[342] The value of wampum, however, was based on the market in furs.[343] After 1648 this market dropped, and after that date a 5-shilling “fathom” of wampum had to consist of 480 white beads. In the period immediately prior to King Philip’s War the use of wampum as currency declined.[344]

Not all trade was in terms of skins and wampum. These were basic but not the exclusive goods in circulation. Guns and alcohol were popular items, introduced onto the market chiefly by the French—much to the distress of the English colonists and missionaries. Corn was also much involved in New England commerce.[345] Settlers traded corn with the Indians, according to the needs of each in a particular year. The Pilgrims at Plymouth traded corn to Indians in Maine for furs, although this pattern came to be replaced by an exchange of furs for wampum.[346]

LABOR

The basic division of labor was between the sexes. Certain tasks were those of women; certain others were those of men—neither did the work of the other. Apparently there were also individual craft specialty avocations, in terms of tribe or local group. That is, besides doing all the tasks that were necessary every day to produce food, clothing, and shelter, some people also made bowls, pottery, pipes, etc. It is not known, however, which people (i.e. a few individuals or almost everyone) within the group made these things.

The tasks of women centered about the home and fields. Theirs was the job of building the house. They set up the poles, made the mats to cover them, and fastened on the covering. When the family moved they took down the mats and carried them on their backs to the next homesite, where they were put onto the family dwelling in that place.[347] The woman did all the tending of the crops—she planted them, weeded them, saw that they were guarded from birds, harvested them, processed them, and stored them. She also made the various containers in which they were stored. Whichever of these products were to be carried to their next camping spot she also carried.[348]

The various collecting activities were the woman’s job—gathering shellfish for food and to bait her husband’s line, collecting roots, berries, and seeds, and also gathering the various raw materials needed for making bags and baskets.[349] When fish or game was captured by the man of the house he left the kill where it had fallen and sent his wife to fetch it in. Having collected the game, the woman skinned it, prepared the meat and dressed the hide, which she might then make into clothing or some household article.[350] Besides these things women had the job of motherhood. Along with the household goods, the baby rode on his mother’s back when the family moved.[351] Women were valued as highly productive members of the community. Bride-price is one institution that emphasizes their importance. The more women there were in a group, the more prosperous it was considered to be. In war, female captives were prized. A wife who wanted to leave her husband could run away to the enemy and be welcomed.[352]

The business of men was to hunt for game, catch fish, and provide protection for the weaker members of the village.[353] Raising tobacco was an exclusive activity of men. Men made and maintained their hunting and war weapons. They also manufactured many of the household tools and utensils.[354] Woodworking in general was the province of men: they carved spoons and dishes; they made canoes; they cut and shaped the poles for houses; they cut down trees to make new farm land; they constructed fortifications.[355]

Certain tasks were performed by groups of people from the larger community. One of these was breaking ground for spring planting, Williams writes that “All the neighbours men and Women forty, fifty, a hundred &c., joyne, and come in to help freely”.[356] Hunting by drive, fishing of some kinds, and the building of fortifications were also communal projects, as was war.[357]

Children, as soon as they were old enough, imitated the tasks of the similar-sexed parent. Toy bows and arrows and miniature pots were among their playthings. Children were useful for help in the fields at such tasks as weeding and keeping away birds. Men who were too old to hunt might also assist in the agricultural activities, if they wanted to.[358] Older women whose families were grown no doubt helped take care of toddlers so that mothers could do things outside the house such as gardening.

TRAVEL AND TRANSPORT

The Wampanoag had two means of travel available to him—going on foot or by canoe. Likewise, for the transport of his belongings and any trade goods he could use his canoe or his back.

Travel on foot through the forests was difficult, owing to the dense growth of bushes and low trees. There were paths worn along regular routes, but hunters had to traverse the woods. Early observers reported that in order to ease movement through the woods the Indians periodically set fire to the woods and burned out the undergrowth.[359]

The Wampanoags were efficient about the business of foot travel. They knew the country well and crossed seemingly trackless woods with accuracy of direction.[360] They trained at running from early childhood and a man could travel along all day at a jog-trot with ease.[361] The traveling costume was designed for a minimum of encumbrance on the journey—the normal dress being the breech clout. The traveler carried a bag of parched corn meal for sustenance and a pouch of tobacco, along with flints and pipe. He either wore or carried his moccasins. A quiver of arrows hung over his left shoulder, with the end resting in his right hand. In the left hand the runner carried his bow.[362] A small quantity of corn sustained him during the day, and by night he would seek shelter among friends of another village, or if alone he would kindle his own fire and dine on corn meal and water.

For water travel, either the birch bark or the dugout canoe was used. The bark canoe was probably preferred for travel on inland waterways, since portages could be made with greater ease, owing its lesser weight.[363] Birch bark canoes were said to be difficult to keep from capsizing. The Wampanoags, however, were skilled in the use of these bark boats, and they are described as venturing out in rough coastal waters.[364] They were strong swimmers and quite prepared to rescue themselves in case of mishap. The canoeist knew how to right his craft while swimming alongside and scramble in again.[365] Canoes were usually propelled by paddles.[366] However, the occasional use of sails is noted. A pole served for the mast and a skin robe or two for canvas.[367]

RECREATION

Recreation took two basic forms: sporting contests and gambling. Both were spectator sports as well as activities for the participants. The only team sport was a game that the English observers dubbed “football”. The ball was about the size of a handball. The game was played on long sandy beaches, the goal posts set a mile apart. If the rules followed the same form as those in other areas of North America where the game was played, the object was to get the ball over the goal without using one’s hands. The game might go on for two days before one goal was made, in which case the spot of play was marked at the end of the day and the game resumed there on the following day. When one tribe played against another the goal posts were hung with a great deal of wealth in wampum and other goods to go to the team that won. Players left their weapons in a common heap before play began and painted their faces as for war.[368] Before the game, men from the opposing teams met and shook hands. If the Wampanoag version of “football” was comparable to that in other places where the game was played, it was rough, and broken bones were not uncommon. In the course of a game players wrestled for possession of the ball and might be dunked in the ocean. Despite the vigorous play, however, tempers were seldom lost, and quarrels were rare. Great multitudes of people gathered for these games; women and children provided a noisy audience, calling out praises to their favorite players. When the play had ended, all joined for a great feast.[369]

Other sporting contests matched individual skills in archery, swimming, and running. Again, the contestants might be members of opposing tribes and the match one of great public interest. Marksmanship with bow and arrow was keen. The bowman held the arrow between his thumb and forefinger. In one form of shooting match the archer shot at his opponent, who would try, usually with success, to dodge the arrows. This was considered good practice for war.

European observers remarked that the Indians were excellent swimmers. Their style was designed for endurance, approximating what we would call a side stroke.[370] Children learned to swim while very young. Like swimming, running was a matter of balancing endurance against speed; the runner had to be able to keep jogging along easily for a day or more.[371]

Gambling was less active but no less competitive. Two types of gambling games were played. One, called Puim, was played with 50 or 60 reeds, each about a foot long. These were shuffled and dealt out to the players in such a way that different numbers fell to each; whoever had the most was counted ahead. A man that was a skillful player at this game wore some of the reeds through his ear as a challenge to anyone who might like to try to beat him.[372]

The other game was called Hubbub. It involved placing five bone dice, painted black on one side and white on the other, in a wooden platter, hitting the platter hard on the ground to make the dice jump up, and betting on the outcome of the color combination.[373] When this game was a contest between communities, a special arbor was built for the players who represented each group. Four poles of 16 to 20 feet high were set into the ground in a square to make this structure, and it was draped with the large quantity of wampum that was bet on the game. Hundreds of spectators would be present at an inter-tribal contest, described as having been a solemn affair. The spectators would chant “Hub Hub Hub” as the dice were being thrown, and the noise carried for a quarter of a mile.[374]

Not all gambling was a great public spectacle. It was a common activity of men at all times. It was pursued with great diligence and for high stakes; a group of men might sit for twenty-four hours without interruption for sleep, drink or food, until all had systematically gambled away the totality of their possessions—including even their moccasins.[375]

Gamblers invoked supernatural good will, sometimes by carrying a rock crystal charm. These were thought to be pieces of thunderbolts.[376] Gambling was usually a serious undertaking. In most cases players parted company in peace, however occasional disputes arose which led to violence and might ultimately result in killings.[377]

ENTERTAINMENT

Occasions for entertainment were usually activities aimed at purposes other than mere diversion. Songs, dances, and even public games had a ceremonial cast to them. A close tie-in with magic and the manipulation or propitiation of the supernatural is suggested in most cases.[378]

At various times of the year great public gatherings were held, in which the members of several local groups met for feasting, dancing, and playing games. At least two such public gatherings were held each year. One was in the spring, when large numbers of people had already congregated at certain fishing places.[379]

The other time of general public congregation was in the fall at harvest time. A dance house was built for the occasion. Dances were held at night, sometimes continuing for a week with the participants sleeping during the daytime. Both men and women gathered as spectators in the dance house; they sang accompaniment while the dancers performed one at a time. As he danced, the dancer would hand out money, knives, clothing, and the like to the needier members of the audience. When one dancer had given all he had, another would follow him, and so on.

Besides the great public gatherings, there were smaller private gatherings for various purposes.[380] One sort, to be discussed later, was to call for supernatural aid. Another was the Nikomo feast, held in the winter by members of a family for a select group of guests.[381] The host would give away as much of his wealth as he could to those who attended the feasting and dancing.[382]

Another favorite type of entertainment was story-telling and oratory. People listened with rapt attention to news and speeches. The discourse of one man might go on for an hour or two, while a large audience listened and smoked in silence; the manner of presentation was dramatic and accompanied by a great deal of gesture.[383]

The music which accompanied dances was provided mainly by singing.[384] Sometimes dances were accompanied by beating on the ground with sticks or hands along with muttering, humming and singing, but aside from these there were no musical instruments among the Wampanoags.[385]

The dances themselves are described as being “vehement in their motion”. At some dances a single dancer would perform; at others a few men and women would dance together.[386] Larger numbers of performers participated simultaneously in war dances.

PROPERTY

Adapted as they were to a mobile existence, the Wampanoags did not own large numbers of personal possessions judged by our standards. A typical list of an individual’s possessions would probably include his clothing, whatever tools he used from day to day, and his “wealth” in the form of wampum, skins, and the like. Even adding in such personal possessions as pipes and jewelry, the amount of property in this class would not have been large. At least some of this property was buried with its owner at his death.[387]

Land and the right to use it was apparently owned by the sachem. The boundaries of territory owned by a particular sachem were well defined, and from this land he allotted certain parts of it to his followers for their use. Not much is known, however, of the basis of land allotment.[388]

The sachem retained certain rights over the land used by his followers. When a deer was shot in his territory he was due the forequarters. He was also to be given the skins of deer taken in water that was in his territory. An annual tribute of food was given him by all the people, in return for, among other things, the use of his property.[389]

TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION

In regard to the subdivision of Wampanoag territory, Vaughan offers the following statement:

Anthropologists recognize nine subdivisions on the mainland, an additional four on Martha’s Vineyard, and several others scattered throughout the offshore islands and coastal promontories. The mainland sub-tribes were generally quite cohesive, largely because of the strong leadership offered by Massasoit and his immediate heirs. The leading Wampanoag sachems kept their principal headquarters at Pokanoket (now Bristol Rhode Island)....[390]

The actual organization of the territory into political units is difficult to discover from information recorded during the seventeenth century. Ideally, there would have been a sachem over each of the Wampanoag subdivisions and under him various sub-sachems who exercised some authority over more localized areas.[391] Probably, as the passage by Vaughan suggests, true organization on a “tribal” basis was an ephemeral thing.[392]

When a leader arose who could attract and hold the loyalty of the various subdivisions of the Wampanoags, then he came to exercise some authority beyond whatever tract of land would have been considered his “territory”—that is, the land which he had the right to allot. Massasoit was such a leader. He controlled a certain territory but also commanded the support of other sachems and received gifts from them as tokens of their loyalty.[393] The absolute authority of a tribal leader like Massasoit was solid only as long as he could keep his followers in agreement with him, and dissension was not unexpected.[394] Upon the death of a sachem, there was probably considerable shuffling and re-shuffling of territorial affiliation.

GOVERNMENT

The chief Wampanoag official was known as the sachem. The same official was also sometimes called sagamore. The office was hereditary through the male line—that is, a man’s son would normally succeed him upon his death or retirement. There were some variations upon this arrangement, and occasionally wives, daughters, and nephews succeeded to the position of leadership. If the heir was too young to undertake the responsibility of leadership, the position was usually held for him until he was of age. The arrangements of regency in this event are not known. Usurpation of the sachemship did occur, and if the man who took the position away from the rightful heir could find support and proved a good leader, he could retain the position.[395]